The present invention relates generally to a terminal crimping machine for producing a cable integrated with a terminal to serve as a wire harness or the like. More particularly, the present invention relates to a terminal crimping machine of the foregoing type wherein the extent of bending of the cable after completion of a crimping operation is reduced as far as possible.
In FIG. 7 and FIG. 8, reference numeral 1 designates a conventional terminal crimping machine. This conventional terminal crimping machine 1 includes a ram 2, a crimper 3 adapted to be raised up and lowered together with the ram 2 fixedly secured to the crimper 2, an anvil 4 located opposite to the crimper 3, an anvil stand 5, a stationary terminal releasing stopper 6, and a terminal correcting guide 7.
To crimp a cable 9 with a terminal 10, first, the cable 9 is firmly held by a clamp 8 in the clamped state. While the foregoing state is maintained, the terminal 10 is then placed on the anvil 4 between the crimper 3 and the anvil 4, and subsequently, as shown in FIG. 9(A) and FIG. 9(B), the ram 2 is lowered until the cable 9 is crimped with the terminal 10 between the crimper 3 and the anvil 4 in the clamped state (the lowering of the ram 2 may be accompanied by raising-up of the anvil 4). When the terminal 10 assumes an inclined attitude relative to the cable 9, the inclined state of the terminal 10 is corrected so as to allow the terminal 10 to linearly extend in the horizontal direction by depressing an electrical contact portion 10a of the terminal 10 with the terminal correcting guide 7 directly before the cable 9 is crimped by the crimper 3.
After completion of the crimping operation, a cable connecting portion 10b of the terminal 10 is forcibly fitted into a recess portion 3a of the crimper 3 serving as a crimping surface. As shown in FIG. 10(A) and FIG. 10(B), as the terminal 10 is raised up together with the crimper 3, it collides against the stopper 6, causing the terminal 3 to be squeezed out of the recess portion 3a of the crimper 3 at the collision position.
As shown in FIG. 10(A), when the terminal 10 is raised up while it is seized by the crimper 3, bending M occurs with the cable 9. Subsequently, when the cable 9 is disengaged from the crimper 3 due to collision of the cable 9 against the stopper 6, it is reversely bent by the reactive power induced by the foregoing collision. Thus, there arises an occasion that the electrical contact portion 10a of the terminal 10 at the foremost end part of the latter is offset from the stopper 6 in the leftward direction or in the rightward direction as represented by phantom lines in FIG. 10(B). In the case that the electrical contact portion 10a of the terminal 10 is offset on the opposite side (i.e., on the right-hand side as represented by R in the drawing) relative to the conveyance direction P of the clamp 8, any significant problem does not appear. On the contrary, in the case that it is offset on the left-hand side L, i.e., in the same direction as the conveyance direction P of the clamp 8, it interferes with the clamp 8 again as the latter is intermittently displaced, causing the cable 9 to be bent by a larger angle of .theta. in the rightward direction as shown in FIG. 11. Thus, this bending M' overlaps the bending M (as shown in FIG. 10(A)), whereby the cable 9 and the terminal 10 are bent in the slantwise upward direction reverse to the conveyance direction P of the clamp 8.
In the case that a terminal pass checker (not shown) is disposed at a predetermined position in the vicinity of the terminal crimping machine 1 in order to determine whether the cable 9 is correctly crimped in the terminal 10 by the crimper 3 or not, the terminal 10 interferes with the checker due to the bending represented by M and M' before it reaches the predetermined detecting position. Thus, the terminal 10 is additionally bent without any possibility of checking the correctly crimped state of the cable 9.